ng verbs illustrating variations of mood, time, number,
&c., he said to me: "Doctor, how long you want me to tell you Indian
language?" "Why?" I replied, "are you tired, Billy?" "No," he answered,
"a littly. Me think me tell you all. Me don't know English language.
Bum-by you come, next winter, me tell you all. Me go school. Me learn.
Me go hunt deer to-mollow." I was afraid of losing my hold upon him, for
time was precious. "Billy," I said, "you go now. You hunt to-day. I need
you just three days more and then you can hunt all the time. To-morrow
come, and I will ask you easier questions." After only a moment's
hesitation, "Me no go, Doctor; me stay," was his courageous decision.

CHAPTER II.

Seminole Society.

As I now direct attention to the Florida Seminole in their relations
with one another, I shall first treat of that relationship which lies
at the foundation of society, marriage or its equivalent, the result
of which is a body of people more or less remotely connected with one
another and designated by the term "kindred." This is shown either in
the narrow limits of what may be named the family or in the larger
bounds of what is called the clan or gens. I attempted to get full
insight into the system of relationships in which Seminole kinship is
embodied, and, while my efforts were not followed by an altogether
satisfactory result, I saw enough to enable me to say that the Seminole
relationships are essentially those of what we may call their "mother
tribe," the Creek. The Florida Seminole are a people containing, to some
extent, the posterity of tribes diverse from the Creek in language and
in social and political organization; but so strong has the Creek
influence been in their development that the Creek language, Creek
customs, and Creek regulations have been the guiding forces in their
history, forces by which, in fact, the characteristics of the other
peoples have yielded, have been practically obliterated.

I have made a careful comparison of the terms of Seminole relationship I
obtained with those of the Creek Indians, embodied in Dr. L. H. Morgan's
Consanguinity and Affinity of the American Indians, and I find that, as
far as I was able to go, they are the same, allowing for the natural
differences of pronunciation of the two peoples. The only seeming
difference of relationships lies in the names applied to some of the
lineal descendants, descriptive instead of classificatory names being
use